Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Lemon and cranberry is one of my favorite flavor combinations. And though I've had many a scone in my life, I've never had this variety before. So I decided to experiment in the kitchen a little and made up a batch to serve as my easy eat-on-the-go breakfast for the week. The result? Not too tart, not to sweet, but perfectly moist and delicious -- and verified easy to eat in the car (even in San Diego traffic!). Looking to change up your usual breakfast routine? Give 'em a try!

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In the bowl of your food processor, combine flour, baking
powder salt and white sugar. Pulse a few times to mix.
Cut the butter into a
few chunks and add to the food processor. Pulse until the mixture is grainy,
with the butter chunks smaller than the size of a small pea.
(If you don't
have a food processor, you can just mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl
and then cut in the butter with a fork.)
Pour the butter/flour mixture into a
mixing bowl. Stir in the dried cranberries, lemon zest and lemon juice. Slowly add in the milk,
just until the dough comes together into a ball. (You may not need to use
all of the milk.)
Dump the dough out onto a sheet of parchment paper and carefully mold into a disk about 6 inches wide and 1/2-inch thick. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 6 equal wedges.
Carefully pull the wedges apart so there's at least 1" of space between each
one.
Transfer the parchment paper and scones to a large baking sheet.
Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over the tops of all of the wedges of dough.
Bake for 15-17 minutes until tops are golden brown and toothpick
inserted comes out clean.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

I eat salad pretty much every day for lunch at work. It's healthy, easy to eat at my desk and can be tweaked to provide enough variety that I don't get too bored with them. So, when Nestle asked if I wanted to try out their new Lean Cuisine Salad Additions to see how they would stack up against a homemade salad, I was instantly game.

Before I headed out to the store, I checked out the Lean Cuisine website to see what exactly the new Salad Additions were and what varieties were available. Turns out, each box contains a little frozen salad kit with chicken, toppings and dressing that you just add to your own lettuce (it's a #BYOL party! woot!). There are 4 varieties: Asian-Style, Bistro, Southwest-Style and Cranberry & Chicken salad. I knew right away that I was going for the Asian-Style Chicken Salad - one of my all-time favorite salads, and one that I hadn't made in a long time. So, I headed out to Walmart to get my supplies.

In addition to buying the Lean Cuisine Salad Additions in the frozen aisle, I also picked up ingredients to make my own Asian-style salad for a head-to-head healthy lunch salad challenge. The Lean Cuisine was $2.50, while the individual ingredients came to $7.57. Of course, those individual ingredients make more 1 serving. Based on the average number of servings per containers of the veggies, chicken and rice noodles, I worked it out to about $2.16 per salad--surprisingly not that much less than the Lean Cuisine.

When I got home, I prepped the ingredients I'd need to bring to work for my homemade salad. As you can see, it too up a *little* more space than the convenient all-in-one Lean Cuisine box.

First up, on Wednesday, was the homemade salad:

I heated up the chicken and veggies in the microwave for about 2 minutes and put it over spring mix with the rice noodles and dressing. When I dug in, I got a lot of flavor from the salad dressing and loved the crunch from the rice noodles, but the chicken or the edamame vegetable blend I used didn't do a lot for me. I think it would've been better if I had used fresh chicken and veggies, but I wanted a fair comparison to the Lean Cuisine - and I didn't have a lot of time the night before to prep (nor do I ever!). So while this salad was a little cheaper per serving than the Lean Cuisine, it wasn't a good value for my taste buds.

Ever the intrepid scientist, I persevered with the experiment on Thursday by trying out the Lean Cuisine Asian-Style Chicken Salad:

Similar to the homemade salad, I heated up the chicken and veggies in the microwave, put them on top of the spring mix, then added the included dressing and crunchy noodles. This time when I dug in, I could taste not only the dressing, but also the carrots, edamame and pineapple. The vegetables were crunchier and more flavorful than the ones I had used in my homemade salad, much to my surprise. Like the homemade salad, though, the chicken didn't do a lot for me. I guess I'm just not big into frozen chicken.

To be honest, going into this, I didn't expect a big difference between the homemade salad and the Lean Cuisine version, considering both used similar ingredients. But the Lean Cuisine was definitely more flavorful and tasted fresher, owing to those crunchy veggies. It was also much quicker and more convenient to pull one box of the freezer in the morning:

Rather than having to prep 3 separate bowls, plus the lettuce -- and try to cram that into my little lunch bag:

For just an extra $0.33 per serving (and less than the homemade verions if you use this coupon), the Salad Additions are definitely worth it.

So while I might start rotating some Salad Additions into my lunch options - I'm still always looking for new salad ideas. Tell me - what are your favorite saladcombinations?

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for CollectiveBias® and NESTLE #CBias #SocialFabric. All opinions expressed are my own.

About Me

I'm Amber, a 30-something writer with a passion for food, wine, travel and good books. I'm a transplant from the Pioneer Valley in Massachusetts (hence the name "Valley Writer") now living in Southern California with my husband and two cats. I love trying out new recipe ideas and visiting interesting places, and sharing the best new finds with my friends, family--and the world!